The importance of creativity in the Rav’s thought

At times when one views an Orthodox tradition – whether that is Orthodox Judaism, Christianity, Islam or Buddhism, to name a few – one usually doesn’t think of “creativity” as an important quality. One instead views it as dogmatic, stagnant and repressive. And if anything, frightened of creativity and change.

Well, I would contend that Orthodox Judaism and in particular the thought of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, does embrace creativity and even places creativity at the center of its thought.

Here are a number of quotations from Walter Wurzburger’s article in Tradition, volume 30.4 1996 entitled, “The Centrality of Creativity in the Thought of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.”

According to the Rav, human beings, as bearers of the image of God, are mandated to imitate the Creator. In view of the fact that the commandment, ve-halakhta bi-drakhav (imitatio Dei) refers exclusively to the divine moral attributes, the Rav treats creation as a moral category. . . .

R. Chaim of Volozin, a forebear of the Rav, [defined] the human task as the realization of one’s potential for spiritual creativity. In his view, that human beings bear the image of God implies that they are charged with imitating His creativity. . . .

He [R. Chaim of Volozin] goes so far as to assert that the bliss of the Hereafter can be enjoyed only by those who actually create their own immortality. The World-to-Come is not a pre-existing domain to which God dispenses visas of admission to meritorious individuals. Everyone must by his own good deeds create his own spiritual domain in the World-to-Come. . . .

According to the [Rav] individual providence extends only to those human beings who by dint of their intellectual and spiritual development have become genuine individuals and are no longer merely members of the human species. When a person creates himself, ceases to be a mere species (“man”), and becomes a man of God, then he has fulfilled that commandment which is implicit in the principle of providence. . . .

What matters for us is that, basing himself on Rambam, the Rav unequivocally declared that striving for ever higher rungs of moral perfection and participating as a partner with God in overcoming the imperfections of the universe is the pre-eminent approach to imitatio Dei. . . .

According to Rav Soloveitchik the extremist enjoys the advantage of being self-assured. But whoever has deeper insight and perceives different aspects of issues must forego the satisfaction of dogmatic certainty.

Rav Soloveitchik points to the dialectical tension within human beings as demanding the balancing of hesed and emet. In his interpretation, hesed mandates involvement in the world to transform it and create conditions conducive to human welfare. Emet, on the other hand, refers to the eternal values of the covenantal community, which transcend the world of temporal flux and which alone can provide us with a sense of meaning and purpose and enable us to overcome our existential loneliness. Since, according to halakhic Judaism, it is our task to seek to encounter God’s Presence primarily in the lower realms of being (ikkar Shekhina ba-tahtonim), we must not try to escape from this world by a flight into transcendental spheres. The human task is to create an abode for God in this world.

This is a vision of human creativity that I find quite beautiful and meaningful, especially in our world that seems so caught up in simplistic visions of good and bad, right and wrong, us and them. This is a profound challenge to each of us to create ourselves and to create a world that are truly fit for God, a world and a self full of love, care and hope.